an t-arm fadó
’iompaíodh ina shoc céachta
athraigh ar ais é
         déan arm de gach aon ní
         cnámha binne na n-éan ceoil



the weapon that once
was changed into a ploughshare
should we change it back
	convert everything to arms
       the singing bones of songbirds?

tá an t-aer dearg
le fuil na seaníobartha
líontar scamhóga
        daoine atá á n-íobairt
         do dhia nach mbacann linn


the air has grown red
with the blood of sacrifice
war fills up our lungs
	ancient human sacrifice
      to an indifferent god

This is a suite of anti-war bilingual tanka poems in 31 syllables (5-7-5-7-7) with links to artwork from Artvee, high resolution art in Public Domain.

Gabriel Rosenstock is a bilingual poet, haikuist, tankaist, novelist, playwright, translator, short story writer and essayist. His latest book from Cross-Cultural Communications, New York, with American photographer Ron Rosenstock (no relation) is a volume of photo-haiku, Daybreak: poem-prayers for prisoners. https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1135894